Access database replacement · Membership bodies · UK
Your membership database is an Access file. I rebuild it as a browser-based web app, from £1,950 with no per-member fees, in about two weeks.
It holds members, renewal dates, fees and who has paid what. It was built years ago by somebody who has since moved on, or retired from committee. It sits on one volunteer's laptop or a shared office drive, it locks up when two admins open it at once, and a lapsed renewal is only ever spotted when the member complains they cannot log in. I rebuild it as a web application that runs in a browser, at the office desk, at home, or on a phone checking someone in at an event.
Send me what you are running now and I will tell you in writing what it would take to replace it, free.
Symptoms
The database has been placed in a state by user 'ADMIN' on machine 'OFFICE-PC' that prevents it from being opened or locked.
Someone left the members screen open before the AGM. Nobody else can check anyone in until it is closed.
The Microsoft Access database engine stopped the process because you and another user are attempting to change the same data at the same time.
Two admins updated the same member's renewal on the same afternoon. One of those updates is now gone and neither of them knows which.
Unrecognized database format 'C:\Members\subs_master.accdb'
The file corrupted on the volunteer treasurer's laptop. Nobody is sure how old the last backup is, or if one exists.
Microsoft Access has stopped working
Windows updated overnight. The membership list that ran fine last week will not open the morning renewals are due out.
Why it happens
Access was designed for one person at a desk. A membership file passed from treasurer to treasurer, or opened by both a volunteer at home and paid staff in the office, is several people writing into one file over time. Nobody built it badly. It was never built for handovers either.
When a renewal date lives as typed text inside a general notes box, nothing can sort it. So somebody keeps a parallel spreadsheet of who is due, or nobody does and a lapsed member is only found when they try to log in or turn up to something they no longer have access to.
Standard rate, concession, corporate, life member, each with its own renewal logic. When that lives as judgement rather than a rule, every renewal becomes a small manual decision. Small manual decisions are where inconsistent invoicing comes from.
Years of somebody adding a column when a new membership category or event came along. The forms stopped matching the tables a long while back. The person who understood why has since stood down.
The replacement
Your categories and your rules, not a generic membership platform. These are the parts most builds like this end up with. Yours is scoped from what you actually run.
Pricing
Mainstream membership management platforms are commonly priced per member, or in bands that jump as your numbers grow. That model punishes exactly the outcome a membership body wants, which is more members. It is the reason a lot of associations and clubs stay on the Access file long after it stopped being safe, because the alternative looks like it costs more the better things go.
This is a one-off build. You pay for the software once, you own it and adding your five hundredth member costs the same as adding the first: nothing. There is optional support afterwards at £75 a month or £750 a year. That figure does not change with membership numbers either.
Full breakdown, including the routes I think are cheaper than me in some cases, is on the cost page. If what you are actually running is a spreadsheet rather than an Access file, the same problem and roughly the same fix apply, covered on the spreadsheet replacement page.
Your data
They come with you. I work from a copy of your file, pull the tables out and bring them across as they are. Your existing history stays intact rather than starting again on an empty system, which matters when the value of the database is years of who has been a member and since when.
Retention gets easier rather than harder. Consent dates and last contact dates become real fields, so records due for review can be listed on demand instead of hunted for. Deletions can be logged. I build the mechanism and I do not decide your policy. What your retention period should be is a question for you and whoever handles your data protection.
If you ever want to leave, you take the lot. The application files and a full export of your data are yours free on request, whenever you ask.
How it works
The Access file, or screenshots of the forms if you would rather not send the data. Tell me what goes wrong most often.
Written. What it would become, what it would cost, how long it would take. If a standard product would serve you better, it says that instead.
Around two weeks. You see it working part way through, not at the end, so a wrong assumption gets caught early.
Your membership records are loaded before you go live. Most people run both for a week, then quietly stop opening the old one.
Price
Starting priceFrom £1,950
£1,950 covers one system rebuilt properly. A membership database at the size a small association or club runs sits in that bracket. Online payment collection, a member-facing portal or anything that has to talk to your accounts package is more work, so it costs more. The blueprint tells you that before you commit rather than halfway through.
I am a sole trader, so there is no VAT to add and no per-user licence behind it. What there is not, is a team. I take a few of these at a time and I will tell you early if yours is not a good fit for me.
Questions
It does the same job, built around your own categories, fees and renewal cycle rather than a generic one you adapt to. If an off-the-shelf membership platform would genuinely serve you better and cheaper, I will say so in the blueprint rather than take the job.
No. The price covers the build, not the number of members held in it. A database of two hundred members costs the same to run as one of two thousand. Optional support afterwards is £75 a month or £750 a year, and that figure does not change with membership numbers.
Yes. Categories, tiered fees and renewal cycles can be held as proper structured fields rather than worked out by hand for every renewal. Who is due, at what rate and from when, becomes a list rather than a memory.
Yes, where that applies. CPD hours, certificates and their expiry dates can be attached to the member record and held as real dates, so who has lapsed becomes a list you can look at rather than something found at audit.
They stay yours. What changes is that the system can help you meet them. Consent dates and last contact dates are stored as real fields, so records due for review can be listed rather than hunted for. Deletions can be logged. I build the mechanism. Setting the policy is your job.
No to both. It is hosted and it runs in a browser. If your admins can open a website, they can use it.
Next step
Email me the Access file, or just describe what it does and what keeps going wrong. You get a written answer covering what it would become, what it would cost and how long it would take. No call required. Nothing to sign.
Joe Thorp · ToolWright · Suite 708, 80A Ruskin Ave, Welling, DA16 3QQ
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